Easy animal sculpting suggestions.

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cattlecollector

Country/State : U.S.AAge : 19Joined : 2012-11-16Posts : 1610

Subject: Easy animal sculpting suggestions. Sun Feb 03, 2013 8:15 am

Hi everyone. I am kind of new to this sculpting thing, but I really enjoy doing it. I have made a few models, but they all turned out bad. I think that the problem is that that I am trying animals that are too difficult. (Water buffalo and such). Does anybody have a suggestion for an easy animal that would be beginner friendly animal? I would love to hear everybody's input. Thanks!

Ana

Country/State : come from Poland now live in The NetherlandsAge : 30Joined : 2010-04-01Posts : 9659

Well, I've started with bigger sculptures: I remember my very, very first one which was a gryphon, it was really bad. Later I've got some practice on My Little Pony customs, I've found out which materials are good and which are bad, I've learned how to paint, which paints should I use etc., what I should do and what I shouldn't. If you want to keep good proportions, print some pictures with the size that you want to have and use wires as a skeleton (I hadn't known that for a very long time ). I must agree with Anna that tapirs are rather easy to sculpt, maybe also some rodents?

I can't help too much. But I think I would start sculpting something based in a regular figure. For example, using the old Schleich hippo female or the new Mojo and almost copying it. So, I would easily see what was wrong comparing with a real thing. Starting with animals without delicate legs, horns, antlers or tails. Or the same project, trying to make a pygmy hippo, studying the differences with a common hippo but using the original figure to help me making what was similar.If you want to make a little animal and unusual species, I agree with Agata, maybe a rodent, maybe a mountain beaver. I think there is no critical parts, maybe only it is hard to get the fur texture correctly. Well, only wanted to show that I also support your initiative but our talented friends of the forum will give you much better tips for sure.

I am still learning, but one thing I do is find (or draw) pictures of that animal at different angles, and print them out at the size I want to sculpt the creature at. This provides a template to work off of.